Pelican Hill Oil and Gas is pulling up stakes and leaving Alaska, the company’s vice president of Alaska operations, Arlen Ehm, told Petroleum News March 1.

“Pelican Hill’s partners have decided to not spend any more money in Alaska,” he said.

The company has had disappointing results from the two wells it drilled onshore on the west side of Cook Inlet. “Both were dry holes,” Ehm said, referring to Iliamna No. 1 near Trading Bay, spud in Nov. 4, 2003, and completed in November 2004, and N. Beluga No. 1 north of the Beluga River gas field, spud Nov. 28.

At N. Beluga No. 1 “we recovered saltwater on three formation tests. There was a reservoir, but no gas,” Ehm said.

Pelican Hill will be selling the 18,587 acres it has under lease in the Cook Inlet basin, as well as the Water Resources International Ideco H-35 KD rig it used to drill both wells. Used to drill large bore water wells in Hawaii and brought to Alaska by Pelican Hill President Al Gross, the small self-propelled carrier-mounted rig was completely refurbished this past year, modified to drill shallow gas prospects to a depth of about 7,000 feet while using the casing drilling method.

The move out of Alaska will leave a promising prospect un-drilled, Ehm said, referring to two gas wells planned for this year north of Pretty Creek on the west side of Cook Inlet between Unocal’s Pretty Creek and Lewis River units.

The North Pretty Creek wells would have been drilled on state oil and gas lease ADL 390103. The Pretty Creek gas field, discovered in 1979, is two miles southwest of the N. Pretty Creek No. 1 and No. 2 wells, both in section 22, township 14 north, range 9 west, Seward Meridian. An ice/snow pad had been built for the N. Pretty Creek No. 1 well, but it will not be used, Ehm said.

February ANS production down marginally from January

Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 943,766 barrels per day in February, down 0.4 percent from a January average of 947,621 bpd.

BP Exploration (Alaska)-operated Endicott, down 11.9 percent from January, had the largest percentage drop, averaging 21,043 bpd in February compared to 23,886 bpd in January. BP-operated Milne Point was down 11.6 percent, averaging 43,716 bpd in February vs. 49,440 bpd in January. BP-operated Northstar averaged 63,418 bpd in February, down 6.7 percent from an average of 67,999 bpd in January. ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Alpine averaged 119,348 bpd in February, barely below the field’s January average of 119,385 bpd.

BP-operated Lisburne averaged 46,707 bpd in February, up 4.1 percent from a January average of 44,864 bpd. The ConocoPhillips-operated Kuparuk River field averaged 194,518 bpd in February, up 3.9 percent from a January average of 187,306 bpd. BP-operated Prudhoe Bay averaged 455,016 bpd in February, just above January production of 454,741 bpd.

Cook Inlet oil production averaged 18,986 bpd, down 16.3 percent from a January average of 22,692 bpd.

Note: See full stories in the March 6 edition of Petroleum News which will be posted online (www.PetroleumNews.com) on Friday, March 4.